PRI Weekly Briefing, 11 March 2005
By Joseph A. D’Agostino
The month after he urged Hong Kong couples to have more children, Sir
Donald Tsang became acting chief executive of Hong Kong following the
retirement of Tung Chee-hwa. …
Tsang, a Catholic with two sons, could easily be its choice.
In a major departure from the Communist Chinese government line, which
enforces a one-child policy on mainland Chinese, Tsang urged Hong Kong
couples to have three children apiece in order to counteract falling
birthrates and an aging population. He said on a Radio Television
Hong Kong program last month, “Hong Kong has one of the lowest total
fertility rates in the world and we need to think about how to resolve
the problems discouraging people from having children. . . . I think
each couple needs to give birth to at least two children to reach the
population replacement level. Three will be the best.”
… Perhaps even China’s anti-family Communist leadership recognizes
that Hong Kong is in dire straits. In the meantime, the nearby
sovereign city-state of Singapore has implemented a host of financial
incentives to persuade its low-fertility population to have more
children.
Hong Kong, with a population of 7 million, has a fertility rate of .94
children per woman, far below the 2.1 children per woman required to
maintain an even population level. Hong Kong’s rate is even below
those of Italy and Spain, whose people are fast committing national
suicide with fertility rates slightly above 1.
…